Report: Texas Tech faces Mississippi State in 2021 Liberty Bowl

The Texas Tech Red Raiders and Mississippi State Bulldogs will face off in the 2021 AutoZone Liberty Bowl, per Brett McMurphy. The game will take place at the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee. Kickoff is currently scheduled for 6:45 p.m. ET on Tuesday, December 28th. The game will air on ESPN and will be available via live stream at WatchESPN.

Texas Tech (6-6, 3-6 Big 12)

The Red Raiders fired and hired a head coach early in the coaching cycle as they let go of Matt Wells after 2.5 years and brought in Baylor Bears assistant Joey McGuire to be the next head man in early November. Texas Tech lost four of their final five games but still became bowl eligible despite finishing second-to-last in the Big 12. Oregon Ducks transfer quarterback Tyler Shough suffered an injury in the fourth game of the season and never returned. Still, Texas Tech entered the conference championship weekend inside the top 20 in yards per play, but the Red Raiders struggled mightily defensively.

Mississippi State (7-5, 4-4 SEC)

The Bulldogs looked much better in Year 2 under head coach Mike Leach and reached a bowl game for the 12th consecutive season. As you might expect, Mississippi State threw the ball at a higher rate than any other team in college football by a fairly large margin. The Bulldogs took down the Texas A&M Aggies, Kentucky Wildcats and Auburn Tigers - all of which were ranked at the time, but fell short in the regular-season finale in the Egg Bowl against the Ole Miss Rebels.